Snapshot: Trump’s Speech Escalates the Conflict

No, his Oval Office remarks were not a surprise, but they are a tragedy for a country on edge

Screenshot from a White House recorded video

Do we need calm and peace and unity? Yes, we do. But over 77 million Americans chose to give the nation’s loudest megaphone to a man dedicated to sowing conflict, stoking fear and intensifying a climate of violence.

Donald Trump proved that again in the hours after the assassination of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk yesterday. This was a moment when the country needed a president who appealed to our humanity and our better angels.

But that’s not what Trump did, of course. Rather than urging the nation to come together and tone down the hateful rhetoric last night, he served up his usual bile by blaming the “radical left.” This even though the shooter remains at large and his identity and motivations are still unknown.

While he stated grief for Kirk’s death, he used the moment to spew anger over demonizing language by the media and others on the left for inciting the act. He had no words for—no interest in acknowledging—the impact his own rhetoric and that of other right-wing extremists has likely had in triggering the assassination of Minnesota’s Democratic state lawmaker Melissa Hartmann and her husband, as well as the assault on the life of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband.

This was no oversight, nor some reckless mistake. This was an opportunity taken by Trump to escalate his war against liberals. At such an unsettling moment, his threats from our Oval Office were especially repugnant, albeit the latest iteration of his ongoing enterprise to build a police state and silence dissent.

“For years, those on the radical left have compared wonderful Americans like Charlie to Nazis and the world's worst mass murderers and criminals. This kind of rhetoric is directly responsible for the terrorism that we're seeing in our country today, and it must stop right now,” Trump said. “My administration will find each and every one of those who contributed to this atrocity and other political violence.”

This from the man who pardoned some 1,500 participants in a violent insurrection at our nation’s capitol, an event that he incited. In listening to Trump last night, I think it’s reasonable to reflect on how a newly elected Adolf Hitler exploited the Reichstag fire in 1933 to quell the opposition and consolidate his power.

As much as I wish it were otherwise, I honestly don’t see right now how the country can stand down from this intensifying situation. The pot is boiling, the cook is pouring in more and more poison, and his fans are cheering him on to go farther.

As much as cooler, more rational voices—primarily among Democrats—have urged calm and respect for the tragedy of a young man’s life being taken from him and his family by a gunman’s bullet, Trump and his regime want the fight, even if it leads to more bloodshed.

I’d like to imagine Kirk’s killing could convince Trump to stop his hostile plan to wage war in Chicago by deploying National Guard troops and an expanding army of masked ICE agents. But the sad truth is that Kirk’s death will likely provide the pretext for Trump to double-down.

The days and weeks ahead will be challenging and demoralizing, but let’s remember that the majority of Americans oppose this fascist downward spiral.

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